It's time for Alex Palou to be recognized as one of the world's best race drivers

If winning three of the last four NTT IndyCar Series championships wasn't enough for Alex Palou to be recognized as one of the best race car drivers in the world, winning four of the first five races of the 2025 IndyCar season should've been. 

And if that still wasn't enough to prove that Palou, 28, should be revered as one of the best drivers in the world, winning the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 should do the trick. 

Palou became the first driver since A.J. Foyt in 1979 to win five of the first six races of an IndyCar season. He's the first Spaniard to win an IndyCar championship and the Indianapolis 500. His win on Sunday is the 16th of his IndyCar career in 87 starts. 

Palou and IndyCar may not be as prevalent on the world stage as Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Formula One. Palou and IndyCar may not be as popular in the United States as Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin and NASCAR. 

But when you stack statistics and the eye test up with his racing peers from around the world, Palou is the textbook definition of an all-time great. At just 28, he has plenty of time — perhaps as much as two more decades — to continue to build a racing resume that could be compared to that of Foyt, Verstappen, Richard Petty, Mario Andretti, Hamilton and Dale Earnhardt, among other racing greats, when he retires. 

Palou is well on his way to winning a third consecutive IndyCar championship, but even if he decided to hang it up after his win in Sunday's Indianapolis 500, he'd go down as one of the best drivers in IndyCar history. 

With plenty of road ahead of him, however, conversations regarding his place as one of the best drivers shouldn't just be limited to IndyCar circles, but discussions worldwide about the greatest talents that currently sit behind the wheel.